IEC Journal

Ethics Related News

• Article on improperly available nonpublic information.  http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/07/29/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5195953.shtml
• Federal Circuit uphold removal of Federal employee who misused access to Agency database.  http://www.fedsmith.com/articles/records/file/08-3335McLeod.pdf

Conflicts of Interest at DoD?

A new book, By His Own Rules: The Ambitions, Successes, and Ultimate Failures of Donald Rumsfeld, is being interpreted to suggest that Donald Rumsfeld's investment portfolio affected his decisions as Secretary of Defense. We have no idea whether the allegations are justified, but they do serve at a minimum to highlight the significance of ethics rules by illustrating how appearances can leave government officials vulnerable to criticism.

Allegations of Wasteful Conference Spending

A Phoenix television news report on a Social Security Administration conference illustrates a danger that the current economic recession may highlight: Reporters may attack government expenditures. We have no idea whether this particular conference was an appropriate expense, but in so far as we can judge from the report, there were no activities at this conference dissimilar to those at retreats held by large non-governmental organizations.

A comment from the report illustrated how easy it is to take things out of context. There is nothing wrong with conference attendees letting family members stay in their hotel rooms if at no extra cost to the government, visiting casinos or even dancing after work hours. However, this did not stop the TV station from commenting: "[T]he information provided by the SSA did not mention an after-hours casino trip, family members staying at the hotel, or the 20-minute dance party ABC15 observed."

Fed. indicted for bribery, as well as misuse of credit card, etc.

Two DHS Immigration officers were indicted for a scheme to defraud the government.  See the DOJ press release at: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/az/press_releases/2009/2009-235(Kittson&%20Bothof).pdf

Air Force Official Guilty of Conflict of Interest

Thanks to an IEC member for alerting us to a recent article about an Air Force employee's conflict of interest problems:

On Monday in U.S. District Court, O'Hair admitted that he failed to disclose that he was a director of a company that benefited financially from his work as a civilian program officer for the Air Force.

He pleaded guilty to making a false statement and engaging in a conflict of interest.

O'Hair faces up to 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine for failing to list on financial disclosure forms that he was a director of Schaller Engineering Inc. The company received more than $200,000 in contracts while O'Hair was charged with awarding contracts for the Air Force Research Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle.

August 13th Meeting

Our August 13th meeting will feature a panel discussion of the OGE informal opinions for the years 2007 and 2008.  Please note that the date of our August meeting is a departure from our usual first Thursday scheduling.  Our panel will include Jeff Green of DoD Standards of Conduct Office, Dave LaCroix of Navy Office of General Counsel and Pat Carney of FCC Office of General Counsel.  Those wishing to view digests of these opinions in advance of the meeting can do so at the DoD SOCO website.  The full opinions are, of course, viewable on OGE’s website.

 

As usual, we will meet from 12:15-1:30 in the OTS auditorium and, as always, individuals who are on the IEC roster need not pre-register for this meeting.  Ethics officials who are not on our roster but who wish to attend can pre-register by contacting Patrick.Carney@fcc.gov not later than Monday, August 10th.  Those who are neither on the IEC roster nor pre-registered can still be admitted by showing a Government ID to OTS Security personnel.

 

Please note:  We’d like to once again remind our membership to frequently check this website for word of future meetings, ethics job openings and other news of interest to the Federal ethics community.  As we’ve indicated previously, if you’ve noticed a lack of email notices lately, the RSS Feed service that a lot of us used was shut down a while back, so you need to resubscribe in order to receive future notices of postings.  Please read our April 1 posting regarding receiving email notices of IEC postings.  It describes one option called FeedBlitz that seems to work well for many of us.  You can get to the April 1 posting by clicking on the link associated with that date on the calendar on the top right side of our homepage.

Agency Model Practices

The May upgrades to OGE's list of Agency Model Practices are welcome. Lists like this have multiple benefits, so let's hope this valuable section can be kept updated on a regular basis.

 

Scholarly Analysis of 18 U.S.C. 207(A)(1)

Allen B. Coe's Air Force Law Review article entitled “18 U.S.C. 207(A)(1) 'Lifetime Representation Ban' Opinions:  A Lifetime’s Work for Agency Ethics Officials and Advisors” is available. Thanks to Mark Stone for the tip.

Insider Trading Bill

The "Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act," H.R. 682, would prohibit members and employees of Congress, as well as other Federal employees from trading based upon material nonpublic information.

Improper Disclosure of Information

Mark Stone drew our attention to President Obama's 27 May 09 six page memo entitled “Classified Information and Controlled Unclassified Information.” 

As Mark noted, this is significant because releasing government information contrary to law or regulation raises standard of conduct issues.  See 41 USC 423(a), 18 USC 1905, 5 CFR 2635.703, and 5 CFR 2635.902(z).

Federal Eye

The Washington Post's Federal Eye blog reports on the Federal Government, including this post on the latest developments concerning Inspectors General.